The Camogli cemetery, built more than 100 years ago, is located along an area of rocky cliffs by the sea. Francesco Olivari, the mayor of Camogli, called the collapse an “unimaginable catastrophe”.
It is estimated that 200 coffins have fallen, but only 10 have been recovered, according to Giacomo Giampedrone, regional civil protection adviser. The recovery of the rest “will depend on the sea in the coming days,” he added.
On Saturday, the maintenance carried out along the fragile coastal area was abruptly stopped when workers noticed cracks in the rock.
“We were working on a part of the rocky coast – it was close to the area that fell today,” Olivari told CNN on Monday. “We saw some signs of cracks. We decided to close the cemetery.”
He said they called on officials from the Ligurian Civil Protection Office to intervene and assess the situation. A team of geologists in the department is using drones to get a better sense of the damage and determine if there is a danger of another landslide.
“This type of collapse that happened today is very difficult to detect or predict,” said Olivari. “This area is subject to this type of collapse – it is very fragile”.
Giampedrone said the Genoa port authority blocked the coastal area below the cemetery on Monday night to prevent coffins from floating into the sea.
On Tuesday, after inspecting the site, authorities said they would continue to work on recovering the coffins and corpses.